Fire Fall as tensions climb in Bridgeview

by Kevin Amerlan on November 1, 2017

ATTENTION! A very important public service announcement for all of you football fans: If you want a particular team to lose on any given day, you can just ask me to blog about them and VOILA! Fate will deliver. That has been the case so far, first with the USMNT and the more recently, the Chicago Fire.

After having a terrific regular season, they were pummeled by the NYRB… not pretty. During their 4-nil demise late last Wednesday, fans couldn’t help but to question why this was happening. Having just recently gone through what was expected to be a rebuilding phase, we should be seeing some significant results, shouldn’t we? And one could argue that simply qualifying for play offs is significant, and that in a way is true. But, it is not significant enough when they lose 4–0 to a 6th seed team in a knock-out round game that they put themselves in position to play.

Sound familiar? I mean, I know the Fire wear Red, White and Blue, but I certainly did not expect them to choke as hard as the USMNT did earlier this month…

This was supposed to be the year where the Fire actually proved why they are one of the league’s most historic teams. Bringing in World Cup champions and consecutive Golden Boot winners, we were expecting to march our way to the MLS cup. But now, were left with an unsettling reality.

Along with a disappointing end to the season, our beloved Bastian Schweinsteiger’s contract will be up and he will be looking to be paid more. After all, the Fire did low-ball him when he signed in the first place. Money wouldn’t have been an issue had they made a deeper run in playoffs. Also with talks of striker David Accam going to France and Golden Boot winner Nemanja Nikolic also receiving big offers, Bastian will also start to look elsewhere. Now we have a ton of dead weight players who were supposed to bring us all the way. Great.

The most logical next step is to unload those players for fresh young talent. It is clearly working for other teams like Atlanta United and star striker Miguel Almiron. The Fire need to follow suit and get rid of the old weight that only helped them get one extra game out of the season. Over all, the rebuilding was a colossal failure.

The MLS off season is long and I think that we will see big changes surrounding the squad in Toyota Park. For now, I might just start supporting Man United.

Cheers!